Both male and female Sinkauli are considered by Colonel
Kirkpatrick as one species, which he calls Singrowla, [85a] probably by a typographical error.
The Lalchandan, or Red Sandal, is a timber tree, the foliage and appearance of which have some resemblance to the Laurels. It seems to be a fine timber for the cabinetmaker, but has little smell, and is not the Red Sanders or Sandal of the shops.
The Siedburrooa, mentioned by Colonel Kirkpatrick, [85b] as the plant from which the Nepalese make paper, is a species of Daphne, very nearly allied to that which botanists call odora.
The Karphul, mentioned also by Colonel Kirkpatrick, [85c] as a small stone fruit, resembling a cherry, is a species of Myrica.
The Jumne mundroo of Colonel Kirkpatrick [85d] I consider as a species of Leontice, although it is a small tree, and has strong affinities with the Berberis. Its leaves are pinnated; but each division, as the Colonel notices, has a strong resemblance to the leaves of the holly.
The Chootraphul of Colonel Kirkpatrick [85e] is, in fact, a species of barberry, to which the Colonel compares it.
There are two species of the Chirata, a bitter herb, much and deservedly used by the Hindu physicians in slow febrile diseases, as strengthening the stomach. The smaller is the one most in request. I have not seen its flowers, but the appearance of the herb agrees with some short notices in manuscript, with which I was favoured by Dr Roxburgh, of the plant sent to him as the Chirata, and which he considers as a species of gentian. The larger Chirata is a species of Swertia, but approaches nearer in appearance to the common Gentian of the shops than to any other plant that I know. Its root,
especially, has a great resemblance, and might probably be a good substitute, were not the herb of the smaller Chirata a better medicine. Both species, however, approach so near to each other, that they are often sold indiscriminately.
The dried scales of a tuberous root are imported from these mountains into the Company’s territory, and the druggists there call them Kshir kangkri or Titipiralu. Some people of the mountains, whom I employed, brought me the living bulbs, certainly of the same kind, and these had young stems then very thriving, but which soon withered from the heat. They had every appearance of being a species of Lilium, and the people who brought them said, that they were the Titipiralu, while the Kshir kangkri, according to them, is a plant of the cucurbitaceous tribe. Other hill people, however, brought for the Titipiralu a species of Pancratium, which I cannot trace in the works of botanists; but it has a great resemblance to the Pancratium maritimum. This is certainly not the plant sold by the druggists of Nathpur.